Getting Started: Implementation
Getting Started Guide (click to view)
Unboxing
Other Sections
Next Steps: Boards and Setup
Activity Boards
Purchase or print student Activity Boards. (Print PDF is included with kit purchase since 2023)
If Printing: Print the A3 Activity Boards for student use from the PDF file located on the wooden USB. Please save this onto your school drive. When printing please:
- Use colour. The system is colour coded. Do not print in black and white.
- Ensure your printer is set to ‘actual size’ or ‘100% scale’. If it is set to the default ‘shrink to fit’ the boards will look right until you put the blocks on. Then you will realise they don’t fit.
- Print 1x number of students for Individual Activity Boards. For example, 24 of each.
- Print half x number of students for Pair Activity Boards. For example, 12 of each.
The Core Kit comes with one of every activity board, printed on high quality card. Retain these for teacher use.
Filling Plastic ‘Write and Wipe’ Sleeves
Initially only give students the one board for the week to put in their plastic sleeve. It takes a little while for them to learn to open and fill the sleeve. Develop efficient routines for giving out the boards at the start of the week and collecting them back at the end of the week. Reuse as many as possible next year.
Then move onto giving students two boards at once. Get them to place one facing the front of the plastic sleeve and one at the back. Two weeks filled at once! Wait until students are used to identifying the required board for the week before you start this.
I have seen one AMAZING Year 2 teacher (who was in her second year of using Bond Blocks) print the boards required for the term using ‘collate’. Each student had an ordered set of 10 boards, in one plastic sleeve. At the end of the week the students would return the top activity board to be reused next year. Incredibly impressive!
Storing Activity Boards
Here’s one way to organise the printed copies of the A3 Activity Boards: in an A3 display folders or A3 files with plastic sleeves. Place multiple copies of one board, in one sleeve.
Winner of the 2022 Educational Publishing Australia Award
1 of 9Bond Blocks Activity Boards Box (Includes 108 Boards)
2 of 9Support Books (Implementation Tier 1, Tier 2/3, Monitoring, Asessment, Differentiation, Answers, Teacher Notes)
3 of 9Four sets of Wooden Bond Blocks
4 of 9Materials Pack (Spinners, Counters, Beadstrings)
5 of 9Bond Blocks USB (Includes
Activity Board PDFs, Test, Excel tools, Powerpoint documents and Bond Blocks Video PL Course)
Bond Blocks Activity Boards (108) – Each set of games is in a plastic wallet for ease of use.
7 of 9Materials Pack: Write ‘n’ Wipe Sleeves (A3) x5
8 of 9Personal Licence Included – The licenced teacher can photocopy their original set of boards for the students they teach.
A Classroom teacher can copy for their own class or a Maths Intervention teacher for all their intervention students.
Organisation & Storage
Storage
One box of 12 sets of Bond Blocks measures
- 56cm long
- 28cm wide
- 36cm high
The most common places I see the blocks stored are in bookshelves or on/in pigeon holes along the edge of the classroom.
Crate Storage
Thanks to Amanda, who found these crates. They hold 6 sets of Bond Blocks which means they are not too heavy to pick up. You can also place them in different parts of the room to help with classroom management during set-up and pack-away.
The dimensions are 46cm long x 31cm wide x 25 high. At the time of publishing this page they are sold at:
- Bunnings “Large Wood Storage Crate” for $19.98.
- Ikea “KNAGGLIG Box Pine” for $25.
Mobile Whiteboard
Thanks to Kendal, who had this Ergerite Mobile Teacher Whiteboard. She found the A3 ‘Write and Wipe’ sleeves fit in the front and 14 sets of Bond Blocks fit perfectly in the back! Kendal also shared that the A3 Write-and-Wipe sleeves can fit in the back, resting on top of the Bond Blocks.
Number Each Set of Blocks
Stick a blue Bond Blocks Avery Label on the front of each case each box of Bond Blocks and number them. This can help schools keep a record of who has which sets of blocks.
Avery software label code L7160. Twenty-one labels per page.
Original Guide
i. First Starting Out
Getting up and running: What’s in the kit (2023 ed.) and the appropriate Implementation book